Beijing air does not necessarily cause drug resistance: researcher

A Swedish researcher on Sunday denied claims that the antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) found in air samples from Beijing would build people's resistance to medicine, saying that it is unsure whether people will be infected with the genes.

Joakim Larsson, director of the Centre for Antibiotic Resistance Research at the University of Gothenburg, told the People's Daily on Sunday that his research did not suggest that the ARG found in Beijing's smog will build residents' resistance to medicine, and it does not mean that people breathing the polluted air can be infected with ARG.

People may be infected with ARG under the following conditions: first, the gene must be living in some bacteria; second, it has to be pathogenic; and third, there must be enough amount of ARG to make people sick, Larsson was quoted by People's Daily as saying.

Larsson's team published an article in Microbiome Magazine on October 7, which said that the team analyzed 864 DNA samples taken from humans, animals and environments worldwide and found Beijing smog carried the largest number and types of genes identical or highly similar to the ARG.

This article raised concerns among Beijing residents after some Chinese media claimed that people living under the smog for an extended period of time will find medicines ineffective when they fall ill.

Some of the news reports have been deleted as of press time.

The smog contains roughly 99 percent particulate matters, such as nitrate and black charcoal, Wang Gengchen, a research fellow at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told the Global Times, noting that the micro-organisms simply adhere to these particulate matters and have a very limited impact on people in the short run.

There's no need to panic over the study results, said Wang, noting that they do not represent the overall situation of Beijing.

The Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning said on Friday that a lot of genes exist around or inside people, but are harmless. These genes won't make people sick and some of them are even good for the body, The Mirror reported on Friday.

Chinese film star Zhang Ziyi said on her Sina Weibo account on Saturday she and her daughter left Beijing as the capital was again shrouded by heavy smog. "Adults can wear masks but children are unwilling to wear one as they feel suffocated … I can buy several air purifiers when I'm indoors. However, I have no choice outdoors. My daughter and I flew out of Beijing."